Upheaval Dome: Utah's 'belly button' that has divided scientists since its discovery

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between a gigantic dome and any of one's belly buttons

The site proposes the dome expanded after a meteorite crashed into Earth 60 million years ago.

Related: Fossil of an 'alien plant' unearthed near a ghost town in Utah doesn't match any living or extinct plant family.

Scientists believe that the meteorite impact first created a bowl-shaped depression in the ground, and that the edges of this depression became unstable and eventually collapsed under their own weight. The underlying rock layers may then have risen up to fill the empty space, eventually forming the ridged structure that we see today.

However, not everyone shares this perspective. Some experts believe Upheaval Dome was actually created by a salt dome forming beneath the sandstone layers in southeastern Utah.

(NPS).

The salt is less dense than sandstone, so it could have formed a massive "bubble" that pushed the rocks aside as it rose upward, as stated by the National Park Service.

It's unlikely that Upheaval Dome is a salt bubble covered in sandstone, as erosion likely removed several layers over time. The center of the dome is thought to be a rocky base that formed below the salt bubble due to rocks tumbling down into cracks around the bubble's edges and piling up beneath it. These rocks may have rolled along the bubble's sides and accumulated beneath the salt, resulting in the rugged feature we see today.

If confirmed, the salt bubble theory would make Upheaval Dome the most extensively eroded salt structure globally.

However, the last published research into the origins of Upheaval Dome ended with the discovery of shocked quartz crystals. Whether further investigation is currently being conducted to definitively explain the dome's origin remains uncertain.

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